George Matulaitis Journal

promises to set everything right by having religion taught in secret someplace else. This has been the line taken by the principal Koscialkowski. Still others supported the Bolsheviks outright and wanted to have schools without religious education. The Polish Educational Committee ordered that classes in all the grammar schools be stopped, but the high schools are still functioning. When the Bolsheviks learned this, they issued an order that the schools remain open until April 13th. However, that was futile. On April 4th and 5th I invited the Dean, Monsignor Wolodzko, Canon Ellert, and some others and asked them about the situation in the schools. We conferred about what to do. I also invited Mr. Skirmuntas, Chairman of the Parents’ Committee, and urged him to have the parents protest against the decree and to send delegates to the Bolsheviks. On my advice and under my supervision, parents’ committees have been formed in all the schools in order to defend them. The individual committees have elected a central executive. They had already decided that religious instruction must remain in the schools and, if not, then they would refuse to send their children. Everyone had undersigned these decisions. Thus, the weapons with which to fight the Bolsheviks were prepared. I pondered whether it would be worthwhile to publish a pastoral letter to the Catholic community on the school issue and consulted with some of the more prominent priests about it. Since it was becoming clear that Bolshevik rule here would be short-lived, it seemed to me and to the more thoughtful priests that there was no point in writing a letter. It would be better to wait awhile until the situation became clearer. However, some of them, especially the hotheaded ones, wanted me to issue such a letter immediately and were even so bold as to rebuke me for it. On April 6th there was a meeting of the Parents’ Executive Committee. Since Professor Chomski was there, I delegated him to supervise it, to provide it with suitable information, and to guide it in the right direction. It was decided to send representatives to Leszcz y<s ki, 1 the new Bolshevik Commissar of Education. Until 246 1 Juljan Leszcz y<s ki: a Polish Jew who had replaced the Lithuanian Vaclovas Bir i ka as Commissar of Education. While V. Bir i ka held the position, he would not agree to issuing the Bolshevik Decree on Education. Bishop Matulaitis had appealed to him through his brother Mykolas.